I enjoyed a great evening of dancing recently after being away from dancing for a couple of months. However, I woke up in the middle of the night with terrible leg cramps! Please tell me what can be done, besides stretching, to prevent leg cramps? Thanks.

Take a bath of 1 cup raw organic apple cider vinegar to 1/2 cup epsom salts before bed.
Or if you wake up with muscle pain take 4 dissolveable tablets of Mag Phos. homeopathic treatments or 4 tablets Arnica homepathic treatments by Hyland's. HTH!

Usually two causes

Dehydration Make sure to drink plenty of water. Stay away from alcohol or caffienated beverages like soda pop as they make it worse

Electrolytes
Magnesium and Phosphorus
Eat a couple of bananas before dancing

At the end of the evening also stretch your calf muscles for several minutes so that they are not tighten up.

keeping the area warm while sleeping may also help with blood flow to the area.

There is some good advice there. I would Google. " Lack of Salt " and read the top one very carefully. Cramp can be caused through lack of salt which can be caused through lack of fluids.

I've had terrible leg cramps and have found several ways to ameliorate or prevent them.

If you get a muscle cramp drink cider vinegar or pickle juice. This is something athletic coaches teach their athletes. Somehow the acid causes the cramp to go away more rapidly.

To prevent cramps:

1. eat bananas almost daily
2. take a magnesium, calcium and zinc supplement
3. drink water in between dances

doing the things above have almost completely eliminated my problem with leg cramps.